House Prices #4 Property market, buying and selling

[101d]

My sellers solicitor has asked them to return the curtain poles to the property I have visions of them turning up "here's your fucking curtain poles"

I mean I wanted them ATTACHED to save a frickin job but here we are

 

[whyhellothere83]

Nothing mentioned for stamp duty. From an entirety selfish point of view would have really benefited from that right now!

I think the overall house values need to fall before messing with stamp duty again

 

[101d]

Thank god. Had a new house offer, same price. Third time lucky!

 

[Folkevermore]

Popping in here for a vent we were hoping to complete on Friday 15th September as this gives us enough time to move from our rented property to the new house and paint in both (whilst also not wasting too much money on rent that month as our lease only ends on the 30th). Now the seller has come back and said they want to complete on the 6th and if we can’t get a date in sooner he’s pulling out. I know some people need the money but for the sake of 9 days! Ugh

Pulling out? It’s not he can find another buyer who can complete in that time. Over 9 days? How dramatic

 

[Folkevermore]

No one wins if prices fall except cash buyers. The only way for young FTBs to achieve progress is to demand better wages. People are constantly rooting for house prices to fall instead of putting energy into pressuring government into increasing wages. We are still paid the same as people in early 2000s but everything (and not only houses!) got more expansive. Not fair!

It frustrates me so much, I’ve worked my arse off to further my career and get big payrises over the last few years so I could afford a house, and now everything’s so much more expensive than the extra money I make doesn’t make much difference.
And I’m one of the lucky ones - so many people haven’t had wage growth and their standard of living has dropped so much because of it. A lot of graduate jobs now pay barely more than the minimum wage

 

[Choco88]

Some people are delusional! They haven’t even done any work on the property so I don’t know where they got that asking price from.

 

[thegirlscout]

There's a new build estate about 20 minutes from my parents village which is comprised of 3, 4 and 5 bedroom family homes.

Prices starting at 900k.

If I had that much to spend I’d no way be buying a new build on an estate. In fact new builds on estates would be my last option.

 

[jojida]

Got our inventory note thingy today and the old homeowners are taking the curtains (fine, we'd want new anyway) but also the curtain poles?

Maybe I'm a minority here but I reckon I'd have left them behind - what are the chances that they'll definitely fit in the new house? Just seems a bit tight to me

 

[Folkevermore]

I'd see this as good news. In other countries where house prices are not so out of sync with wages it's the norm to sign up for a long mortgage.

It makes sense as the prices depend on how expensive it is to borrow money. So many have taken out huge debt based on the old days of near 0 interest rates.

--

Record demand for 35-YEAR mortgages as rates keep rising: Proportion of first-time buyers taking out lengthy loans doubles in just two years amid fears of debt timebomb

• Spreading out loans makes them more affordable for buyers in the short term
• But homeowners will accrue thousands of pounds more debt on the interest - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ing-lengthy-loans-doubles-just-two-years.html

Considering you remortgage every 2/5 years, the initial term doesn’t really matter at all and people fixate on it way too much.

Mines 38 years and people always seem horrified when I tell them that. But interest rates may drop, mine and my partners salary may increase, and we can easily reduce the term to adjust for that or make overpayments if we want.

We’ve deliberately gone for a longer term that allows us to have a good amount of disposable income per month, as well as allowing us to put approx £500 a month in savings for an emergency fund. It’s just the sensible option.

 

[Shinythings]

Got our inventory note thingy today and the old homeowners are taking the curtains (fine, we'd want new anyway) but also the curtain poles?

Maybe I'm a minority here but I reckon I'd have left them behind - what are the chances that they'll definitely fit in the new house? Just seems a bit tight to me

Yeah, I'd saying leaving curtain poles is pretty standard. When I moved in here they took everything. Lightbulbs, handles etc. Basically anything that wasn't built into the house. Had to do a dash to B&Q on moving day so we could open doors and have light

 

[Yel]

I bet as soon as the interest rates start decreasing the government will announce some sort of new help to buy scheme

It’s strange how obsessed people are with their houses gaining value. I’ve recently bought my first house and as long as I’m not in negative equity when I come to remortgage, I really don’t care about whether the value goes up or not. It’s not like I can profit on an asset I live in. Meanwhile my parents are constantly worrying about their (mortgage free) house dropping in value. They bought it for 1/5th of what it’s worth now so it’s not like they’ll ever lose money

It's beyond toxic.

People expecting their house to be a money printing machine and thinking the path to wealth is getting a few buy to let's that underlings will go out to work for.

 

[Shinythings]

I HATE it when tenants are there when you view a house. We knew it was a landlord selling but where told tenants would be out when we viewed. Arrived today with the agent and tenants are sitting in the living room in their PJ's eating breakfast. Immediately we feel awkward and don't want to look around because you feel like you're intruding. Completely gets the viewing off in the wrong foot and then all I want to do is get out.

It did seem like a nice house but don't know if we're even interested because of how awkward the whole thing was.

 

[~*~Jess~*~]

Our buyers pulled out today back to square one

 

[aggytha]

We originally went on the market in March 2023, got fed up and came off in August (with the idea of going back up in the spring)

A few weeks later got a phone call from our estate agent to say the house we loved (also up with them) fell through. So we went back on the market, dropped the price by 10k and sold a day later… for our original asking price we then completed 10 days before Christmas.

Sometimes I really do think it’s luck and timing!

 

[Yel]

I do find it a bit silly all these politicians going on about people with mortgages should have security and they did the right thing so shouldn't have to pay higher interest rates.

Da fuck

You sign up for a mortgage and you have a home for as long as you can make the debt repayment.

Renters get kicked out of their homes through no fault of their own. Mortgage holders get a lot more protection as is.

If people over stretched themselves during ultra low interest rates and now can't meet repayments did they really do the right thing? Or was it people who decided not to buy somewhere for 10 times their income that they'd struggle to service the debt on once interest rates returned to normal that did the right thing?

 

[Yel]

The amount of older people I’ve heard make fun of younger people for being scared about rates actually disturbs me.
I know a lot of older people don’t understand the info you shared, or that 6% now is like 15% back then, but god do they love to have a superiority complex about how much harder they had it. As if they didn’t have three bedroom houses whilst working in the local tescos

It's grim the lack of empathy and the top trumps to say they had it worse.

Some people just don't want to accept they had it far easier with the essentials.

A Dr these days will have a lower standard of living than a supermarket worker did for the older generation and retirement will only be an option for a small amount at the top.

 

[Notworthy]

I wish my lender had provided a bunch of info at what I’d pay with each rise in interest rate. I just got the one figure that was 3% higher.
Would’ve saved me a lot of time on online calculators

Atleast you had the smarts to check for yourself. I have been shocked by the level of ignorance that some of my colleagues have displayed. I think 10 years plus of super low interest rates have dulled their brains but even so you'd think borrowing in excess of £100k would trigger some kind of thought that it would be wise to do a bit of research.
Atleast one of them has realised that they can pay upto 10% off each year and has just done exactly that but he admitted he had no idea about mortgages and he borrowed over £150k.

 

[101d]

Next on: I'm never moving again

My buyers have had their mortgage offer withdrawn! Now they're scrambling to get another. I hate everything!!!

 

[101d]

Iv never sold a house before....but it's stressful isn't it?? Wow. A family came for a viewing the other day, started going through all our drawers, turned our computer on and had their kids literally running around our landing. Iv got a really expensive floor lamp and I had visions of them breaking it. It's the most stressful thing ever! And it all feels so invasive too. Got someone coming for a second look today....fingers crossed we will get an offer, I wouldn't want to do this often. Lol.

That's not normal... I'd of told them to do one!!

 

[Folkevermore]

But the property you buy will also drop in value so unless your property ends up in negative equity it won't make any difference to you. You'll have a smaller deposit but you'll also have a smaller mortgage. In a falling market the only people that really lose out are the ones coming out of the market completely, moving to a smaller and/or cheaper property and those in negative equity.

I think people seem to forget this. Dropping prices are actually beneficial for upsizing